Walk You Home
by ReachingSteiner
Summary: "Annie leaned back in her seat, rolling her eyes. 'Are you always this hopeless at social interaction' Eren grinned, laughing at himself. 'Well, I haven't spilled my coffee on you yet, so it could be worse.'" In a coffee shop tucked away in a corner of a snowy city, Eren finds unexpected company to keep away the cold.


**Walk You Home**

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1/2

In the heart of the city, winter arrives unannounced; it blows through without warning, prompting streetwalkers to go shopping for trench coats and college students to flock into the nearest coffee shop for warmth and caffeine. Eren Jaeger fell into the second category.

He sat hunched over at a table by himself, eyelids drooping, scanning the same handful of lines in his textbook at least a dozen times before he decided he needed a third cup of coffee. The boy stood and shuffled over to the line for the register, hands jammed in the warm pockets of his leather jacket, hoping nobody would steal his laptop while he was gone.

He leaned against the counter, absentmindedly scanning the room and trying not to fall asleep while standing in place. Everybody looked the same to him: headphones in, eyes locked on a computer screen, taking the occasional sip of cappuccino to fuel their last-minute studying for finals week. Everybody had the same story. Everybody was…

…wait. He _knew_ that girl.

Eren paused, surprised to see a face he recognized. It was a girl sitting by herself at a small table, across from an empty seat. Blonde hair tied back, bangs falling over startling blue eyes, figure wrapped up in a muted brown trench coat. He knew this girl from somewhere. Alex? Anna? Alie?

 _Annie!_

That was it! She sat a few seats away from him in their film theory class. Nobody in that class was a social snowflake, but even the most awkward students had noticed how the mysterious blonde girl never spoke a word to anyone the entire semester. A few rumors circulated briefly—her parents were drug dealers, she had just gotten out of jail, she was a member of some sacrificial cult—before people lost interest and the blatant untruths eventually dried up.

At least… Eren _figured_ they were untruths.

Not entirely sure what was compelling him, he handed the cashier more money than was owed, grabbed his latte and made his way over to the blonde's table. At first she didn't notice him; she was engrossed in a nearly-finished crossword puzzle on the back of a newspaper, chewing the end of a thin yellow pencil. Abruptly aware of the fact that he had no idea what to say, Eren cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Um, hey," he tried, putting on a friendly grin. Annie glanced up at him, her unreadable expression unchanged by his presence.

"Annie, right? I'm Eren. We're in film theory together," Eren continued, suddenly unsure of whether the girl had ever even noticed his existence in class.

No response.

"Um… mind if I join you?" the boy pressed on, feeling increasingly out of his depth. Why did he decide to, out of nowhere, be friendly to someone who was essentially a complete stranger? After all, she was clearly in the middle of something, Eren was rudely interrupting her like this, he should probably just—

Still silent, Annie brushed her bangs behind her ear, allowing Eren to see an icy blue eye previously covered up by the girl's hair. Unsure of whether this action meant an affirmative or not, Eren decided to take the initiative and sit down anyway. He laced his fingers together in front of him, twiddling his thumbs uncertainly.

"So… are you ready for finals?" the boy began, grasping for something, anything, with which to start a conversation. "I guess you must be, since you're… uh…"

Eren trailed off as Annie, silent as ever, turned back to her crossword puzzle as though Eren had never approached her.

"… working on a… crossword," he finished, mumbling. "Instead of studying."

Eren could practically hear his words falling lamely flat, and was on the verge of standing up to leave Annie alone when his eye caught the final clue the girl was puzzling over. Tilting his head slightly to read it upside down, he made out the sentence:

 _Michael Jackson's type of criminal_

Face lighting up in recognition, Eren glanced over at the remaining space in the puzzle: six letters exactly. He couldn't hold in a slight wry smile.

"It's 'smooth.'"

Annie glanced up at him, and this time her slightly furrowed brow betrayed a hint of surprise, and—perhaps—curiosity. She scribbled in the last word and found that it did, indeed, align perfectly with the other answers she'd written in. Again, her piercing gaze met with Eren's.

"So, Eren," Annie said, with a deep sigh. "What can I do for you?"

Eren blinked. Those were the first words he'd ever heard Annie speak; her voice was low, even, disinterested.

"Um," Eren began, trying to recall how exactly the English language functioned. "I just, you know, saw you here, recognized you from class, uh, figured I'd come say hi. Didn't want to interrupt anything, but, it didn't look like you were busy—with studying, I mean, obviously you were doing your crossword, but, um… just wanted to, you know, uh…" Eren cleared his throat. "Feel free to cut me off at any time. Please."

Annie stared at him for a moment, a single eyebrow quirked. "So you wanted to say hi."

"Yeah," Eren replied, relieved she hadn't gone silent again.

"To someone you don't even know, who just happens to share a class with you at college."

"Um…" Eren couldn't deny he'd probably come across as a bit strange. "Yeah."

Annie leaned back in her seat, rolling her eyes. "Are you always this hopeless at social interaction?"

Eren grinned, laughing at himself. "Well, I haven't spilled my coffee on you yet, so it could be worse."

Annie snorted humorlessly. "If that happened, you wouldn't be walking out of here with your spine still in alignment."

"I believe that."

Eren was quiet for a moment, then extended his hand over the table. "Let's try this again. I'm Eren Jaeger, from Shiganshina. Aerospace engineering major."

Annie abruptly stood up, brushing her bangs back. Ignoring Eren's hand, she grabbed her newspaper off the table. "Annie Leonhardt. I've got to get going. Enjoy your coffee."

At a loss for words as Annie brushed past him, Eren sprang to his feet, with no idea what was driving him to be so persistent. "Wait!"

Annie paused, turning her head slightly.

Eren took a breath. "Mind if I walk you home?"

There was no response for a moment. Then, Annie looked back at the annoyingly eager boy behind her. He was pierced again by that curious icy gaze of hers.

"If you insist," Annie finally sighed, turning back and strolling out of the coffee shop.

Eren stood in place for a second, surprised that she had agreed. With a weird, unexpected giddy feeling in his stomach, he broke out into a grin, and followed the mysterious blonde girl into the wintry air and the white streets of the city.

He'd completely forgotten about his laptop.

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Author's Note: Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas! This is the first chapter of my two-parter story- I hope you all enjoy, and are having a wonderful holiday season. Please leave a review if you'd like to give me feedback, and be sure to follow so you don't miss part two (which will be up soon!)

-Steiner


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